California broker busted in alleged billion-dollar ticket reselling scheme

Key Points:

• REPS & Company, a San Diego-based ticket reseller, is facing a federal lawsuit from the DOJ and FTC for allegedly buying over $1.3 billion worth of tickets—exceeding purchase limits—to resell at inflated prices, impacting events like Beyoncé's Renaissance tour.
• The company is accused of using 1,300 accounts and sophisticated technology, including data scraping, proxy services, and fake identities, to bypass ticket limits on platforms like Ticketmaster, generating at least $120.8 million in profit.
• REPS allegedly violated the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act by circumventing online purchase limits and reselling tickets at exorbitant markups, prompting the lawsuit to seek penalties and prohibit future violations.
• The DOJ and FTC emphasized their commitment to enforcing laws protecting consumers from ticket scalping practices that drive up prices and limit access to popular events.
• California lawmakers have recently passed legislation to curb unfair ticket resale practices, though some measures faced criticism for potentially benefiting major ticket platforms like Ticketmaster.